Tonya Winders Talks About the Daily Impact of Asthma Guidelines for Patients

Future asthma guidelines need to focus more on the unmet needs of the patients whose severe asthma is not well controlled, said Tonya Winders, MBA, CEO and president of the Allergy & Asthma Network, who spoke at the European Respiratory Society meeting.

Transcript

How do asthma guidelines affect the day-to-day experience of patients with asthma?

Winders: Well, the asthma guidelines definitely outline what is the standard of care, the clinical pathway that a patient should expect when they are diagnosed and then when they are reassessed on an ongoing basis by their provider. Unfortunately, there's a disconnect between what should happen and what often does. And so, that's what really [my] session will highlight. And again, we will bring to bear patient experience, patient voice, and exactly what some of those barriers may be.

Does the experience differ on the degree of asthma severity?

Winders: The experience of patients of mild asthma vs moderate-to-severe asthma is very different. When it comes to daily impairment and impact on activities of daily living, it's very evident that the severe asthma population has the bulk of the unmet need and burden. And so, there is a disparity difference between those three, of mild, moderate, and severe. But even within the severe population, we see a vast difference between those that are uncontrolled, and those that are well controlled. So, really, the focus needs to be on the unmet needs of the area of those with poorly-controlled severe asthma most evidently.